NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: NEW YORK NEWSPAPERS

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: NEW YORK NEWSPAPERS; The Newest Wrinkle In a Not So New Rivalry

By DENNY LEE

Published: May 12, 2002

When The New York Blade News, a gay newspaper, hit the streets five years ago, its rival played the gay card.

Out of touch, dull and not gay enough, said the editors of LGNY, its sole competitor. What's more, they pointed out, The Blade was run by a straight-owned news media company.

But the tables were officially turned on Friday. LGNY, founded in 1994 as Lesbian Gay New York, was recently sold to Community Media, which has straight ownership, and renamed Gay City News on Friday. It will now be published alongside its new cousins, The Villager and Downtown Express, two community weeklies in Lower Manhattan.

Chris Crain, The Blade's executive editor, resisted teasing his competitor, although his paper is now owned by Window Media, a gay-owned publishing group in Washington.

''My initial reaction was to laugh,'' Mr. Crain said. ''I don't want to pass judgment, but the press release I saw said that LGNY was planning to pool editorial resources with the straight-owned chain. That's something The Blade never did.''

The insular but fractious world of the city's gay newspapers has been characterized as much by accusations of political bias and journalistic offenses as by the fact that it has focused on gay issues passed over by the mainstream press. For every complaint that The Blade is anemic because of its objective reporting style, LGNY has been dismissed as a hot-blooded tabloid preaching to the converted.

The Blade, once a weekly, is published on alternate Fridays and has a free circulation of 45,000. Gay City News, currently published on alternate Fridays, will become a weekly next month and has a free circulation of 35,000.

LGNY's founder, Troy Masters, who is associate publisher of Gay City News, said the decision to sell was financial. While advertising and technical resources will be shared, he said that the news department, which will grow from two to eight people, remains independent. ''The entire staff is gay,'' he said.

But John W. Sutter, president of Community Media, who is straight, added that he wields ''ultimate editorial responsibility'' as publisher of Gay City News.

As for a straight-owned company running a gay publication, Mr. Sutter said: ''This is less about sexual orientation, than it is about community orientation. What matters to gay readers is that the paper is independent and covers their community thoroughly.'' DENNY LEE

Photos: John W. Sutter, who publishes Gay City News, says ''community orientation'' is what counts. (Matt Moyer for The New York Times)